[SKRIVA] "The Politics of SF"

  • From: Ahrvid <ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "skriva@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <skriva@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 1 May 2014 19:46:44 +0200

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/04/29/the-politics-of-science-fiction/
Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit fame, has an interesting column on the political 
battle over this year’s Hugo Awards, the most prestigious prizes for science 
fiction writers:

"There was a time when science fiction was a place to explore new ideas, free 
of the conventional wisdom of staid, “mundane” society, a place where 
speculation replaced group think, and where writers as different as 
libertarian-leaning Robert Heinlein, and left-leaning Isaac Asimov and Arthur 
Clarke would share readers, magazines, and conventions.
  But then, there was a time when that sort of openness characterized much of 
American intellectual life. That time seems to be over, judging by the latest 
science fiction dust-up. Now, apparently, a writer’s politics are the most 
important thing, and authors with the wrong politics are no longer acceptable, 
at least to a loud crowd that has apparently colonized much of the world of 
science fiction fandom….
  The Hugo Awards are presented at the World Science Fiction Society’s 
convention (“Worldcon”) and nominees and awardees are chosen by attendees and 
supporters. The Hugo is one of the oldest and most prestigious awards in 
science fiction, but in recent years critics have accused the award process — 
and much of science fiction fandom itself — of becoming politicized.
  That’s certainly been the experience of Larry Correia, who was nominated for 
a Hugo this year. Correia, the author of numerous highly successful science 
fiction books like Monster Hunter Internationaland Hard Magic, is getting a lot 
of flak because he’s a right-leaning libertarian.
  Glenn links to a post by Correia where the latter describes the hostility his 
nomination has engendered, some of which is indeed extremely nasty. Some of the 
arguments of his critics are difficult to take seriously, such as this one 
claiming that members of “marginalized” groups need not judge his work “fairly” 
because “[t]hat ship has sailed. It sailed when the first Native Americans died 
from plagues brought to the land by the pilgrims. It sailed when white men 
chained the first black slaves to their ships.” By that silly standard, there 
is also no obligation to judge works written by, e.g., Chinese, fairly, since 
the biggest mass murderer in world history was Chinese, and his atrocities were 
a lot more recent than those of the pilgrims and slave traders, and were 
inflicted against an incredibly wide range of people, both “marginalized” and 
otherwise."
-Ahevid
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